The US road map to balkanize Syria

Pepe Escobar is an independent geopolitical analyst. He writes for RT, Sputnik and TomDispatch, and is a frequent contributor to websites and radio and TV shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the former roving correspondent for Asia Times Online. Born in Brazil, he's been a foreign correspondent since 1985, and has lived in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Even before 9/11 he specialized in covering the arc from the Middle East to Central and East Asia, with an emphasis on Big Power geopolitics and energy wars. He is the author of "Globalistan" (2007), "Red Zone Blues" (2007), "Obama does Globalistan" (2009) and "Empire of Chaos" (2014), all published by Nimble Books. His latest book is "2030", also by Nimble Books, out in December 2015.

Forget about those endless meetings between Sergei Lavrov and John Kerry; forget about Russia’s drive to prevent chaos from reigning in Syria; forget about the possibility of a real ceasefire being implemented and respected by US jihad proxies.

Forget about the Pentagon investigating what really happened around its bombing 'mistake' in Deir Ezzor.

The definitive proof of the Empire of Chaos’s real agenda in Syria may be found in a 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) document declassified in May last year.

As you scroll down the document, you will find page 291, section C, which reads (in caps, originally):

“THE WEST, GULF COUNTRIES, AND TURKEY [WHO] SUPPORT THE [SYRIAN] OPPOSITION… THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING A DECLARED OR UNDECLARED SALAFIST PRINCIPALITY IN EASTERN SYRIA (HASAKA AND DER ZOR), AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE SUPPORTING POWERS TO THE OPPOSITION WANT, IN ORDER TO ISOLATE THE SYRIAN REGIME, WHICH IS CONSIDERED THE STRATEGIC DEPTH OF THE SHIA EXPANSION (IRAQ AND IRAN)”.

The DIA report is a formerly classified SECRET/NOFORN document, which made the rounds of virtually the whole alphabet soup of US intel, from CENTCOM to CIA, FBI, DHS, NGA and the State Department.

It establishes that over four years ago US intel was already hedging its bets between established al-Qaeda in Syria, aka Jabhat al-Nusra, and the emergence of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh, aka the Islamic State.

It’s already in the public domain that by a willful decision, leaked by current Donald Trump adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Washington allowed the emergence of the Islamic State – remember that gleaming white Toyota convoy crossing the open desert? - as a most convenient US strategic asset, and not as the enemy in the remixed, never-ending GWOT (Global War on Terra).

It’s as clear as it gets; a “Salafist principality” is to be encouraged as a means to Divide and Rule over a fragmented Syria in perpetual chaos. Whether it’s established by Jabhat al-Nusra – aka “moderate rebels” in Beltway jargon – or al-Baghdadi’s “Califake” is just a pesky detail.

It gets curioser and curioser as Hasaka and Deir Ezzor are named in the DIA report – and directly targeted by the 'mistaken' Pentagon bombing. No wonder Pentagon chief Ash 'Empire of Whining' Carter took no prisoners to directly sabotage what Kerry had agreed on with Lavrov.

No one will ever see these connections established by US corporate media – as in, for instance, the neocon cabal ruling the Washington Post’s editorial pages. But the best of the blogosphere does not disappoint.

So what are Russia's options?

The crucial question is of course what will Russia do about it – beyond Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, being absolutely appalled by the recent drama queen performance of notorious batsh*t crazy Samantha Power.

What will Moscow do about the fact that the whole nebulae described in the Beltway as “moderate rebels” – all of them issued from the Wahhabi ideological matrix - enjoys and will continue to enjoy, especially under Hillary 'Queen of War' Clinton, a CIA and/or Pentagon weaponized connection?

The DIA document spells it all out, in a stark link with all previous Divide and Rule schemes, from the Israeli Yinon plan to the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) delirium.

In Pipelineistan terms, this continues to be about the Qatar to Turkey – via Syria – natural gas pipeline versus the proposed $10 billion Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline, for which there is already a memorandum of understanding.

Lavrov is too much of a stellar diplomat to leak it – but after Deir Ezzor, Moscow has definitive proof any possible ceasefire bargained with Washington will be smashed.

So never-ending GWOT once again metastasizes from fighting “evil” al-Qaeda to allowing al-Qaeda in Syria and its spin-off the “Califake” being allowed to carve up their privileged space in Syria.

Nothing substantial will happen before the November US presidential election – apart from similar Deir Ezzor 'mistakes' ordered by soon-to-be-unemployed Ash Carter.

Afterwards, all bets are off. For contractors feeding off the industrial-military-security-surveillance complex, Russia demonization will remain a historic” business opportunity. And just wait if The Three Harpies manage to get their tentacle hands on the Empire of Chaos.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.